CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2009
| Author | Zimányi, Eszter |
|---|---|
| Title | Rethinking Anorexia Nervosa - A Feminist Phenomenological Approach |
| Summary | This thesis argues for an approach to anorexia nervosa informed by feminist phenomenology, focusing on understanding this eating disorder in terms of bodily activity rather than seeing it as developing in reaction to media images. Furthermore, the thesis investigates the way anorexics experience their interpersonal relationships, as well as the ways in which therapy changes their intersubjective relations. This focus on the therapeutic process also signifies a shift from a lot of feminist scholarship by exploring what happens to anorexics once they have been diagnosed and their treatment has begun, rather than focusing exclusively on the investigation of the causes of the disorder. Furthermore, as intersubjectivity plays a prominent role in the present approach, this shift also means an engagement with what “the other side” thinks, that is, how the therapist lives through treatment and how s/he perceives the anorexic’s experience. The project involved conducting semi-structured interviews with six experts and two anorexics (one recovered, the other still under treatment). These oral accounts that serve as a basis for the analysis are not numerous, and cannot be taken as representative. Yet, the aim is to enquire into the lived experience of anorexics and their therapists, and not to draw any generalised conclusions. This, moreover, would work against the employed feminist phenomenological approach, which tries to understand people’s experiences. There seem to have been few attempts to investigate the possibilities of a feminist phenomenological approach to anorexia nervosa, and this project intends to initiate a dialogue between feminist phenomenology and the understanding of anorexic behaviour. Recognizing the potential of the suggested approach and conducting further research could contribute to the existing scholarship on the body in general, and on anorexia nervosa in particular. |
| Supervisor | Loutfi, Anna |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2009/zimanyi_eszter.pdf |
Visit the CEU Library.
© 2007-2021, Central European University